Philippine banks Archives » Pinoy Money Talk

How to open a Philippine bank account (for foreigners and Filipinos)

We’ve been getting questions from our readers regarding how to open a bank account in the Philippines. Some questions they’ve frequently asked us include: What … Read More

Largest Banks in the Philippines (2009)

Last year, we posted a list of the Top 10 Banks in the Philippines, based on total assets and deposits at year-end 2008. We now bring you the list of the Largest Banks in the Philippines, in terms of assets, deposits, and net income, as of year-end 2009.

The list only includes banks headquartered in the Philippines, meaning other banks based in another country but with local operations are not analyzed. Also, since the basis of the financial figures are the financial statements submitted to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), only publicly-listed banks are mentioned. Government- and privately-owned banks whose financial statements are not available to the public are excluded in the list.

What are Unsafe and Unsound practices of banks?

Banks have been the perennial option for Filipinos as regards keeping their money. Aside from the fact that deposits are liquid — meaning you can go to a bank anytime during banking hours to request a withdrawal — there is also a sense of guarantee because deposits up to P500,000 are insured by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC).

But now that we’re seeing rural banks fail one by one, we wonder: Is our money really safe in banks?

Withdraw PayPal to bank accounts in Philippines

Pinoy Money Talk is one of the first, probably the very first, to break this news to the blogosphere but expect other sites and blogs to write about this without giving us credit although they got the news from us. LOL.

Anyway, brace yourself:

Effective today, PayPal started allowing users in the Philippines to withdraw funds directly to local bank accounts.

Buying and selling Paypal to convert funds to cash

We’ve already outlined here how to withdraw PayPal in the Philippines and we also have a bustling discussion here of the details of these withdrawal methods.

Almost all of these ways, however, incur a certain amount of transaction fee, for example, the $5 that PayPal charges whenever you make a transfer to your local debit or credit card. At times, you also lose on the exchange rate because the banks’ rates are often lower.

So is there an alternative way to convert PayPal funds to cash without incurring a lot of fees and without losing on the exchange rate?

Yes, by selling your PayPal funds.